Last week, we discussed the speed of football actions within the context of youth football. Today we will look further into this, but now through the lens of the professional level.
As mentioned, football actions are universal, so whether you are playing in India, Argentina or the UK, there will be a format of 11 vs 11, 2 goals and 1 ball. Using the rules of association football allows the game to take place and (hopefully) stop any confusion.
For the game to be a success and to reach the objective of scoring 1 more goal than the opponent, each player will always be executing different football actions. Without these, you can’t participate in the game and execute your desired intentions.
Last week we looked at what a football action is, so to recap;
What is clear before we start, is that all football actions by definition are the same. Whether you are a player at under 7’s or a professional in the Premier League, when making a pass (in the correct context), you will be communicating, making a decision and executing a decision. The differing factor between the 2 ends of this spectrum, is the space that a player has and the time afforded to them. This characteristic underpins the football action and impacts how fast/slow a player executes a given decision.
Now, what is clear to state is when you are playing football at the highest level (professional), the space and time will be significantly reduced as the intensity (speed of football actions) is extremely high. Intensity is the speed of what the football action (CDE) is executed at and will contribute to the decision making process, of all participating players.
In professional football there are many external factors that have to be taken into consideration, that can effect the thinking of a player. The crowd, the referee and even the occasion can contribute to slower decision making and in turn, poorer execution.
When speaking with my colleague, he was able to share some very informative insights into executing football actions, at the highest level. The examples given were of Frank Lampard and Cesc Fabregas.
Frank Lampard
Would scan non-stop throughout the game and this enabled him to consistently create space
When this happened, the communication between the Chelsea players was so high, it allowed Lampard to receive the ball and pass easily
He preferred receiving the ball on his back foot and the pass that enabled him to do this, was always executed at very high speeds. (Minimal touches, to then pass the ball – keeps the intensity of the attack flowing)
Cesc Fabregas
Had extremely good game insight and this allowed him to understand, what was going on around him, at all times
Passing was one of his strengths and he would execute this action, within extremely tight spaces. If you applied pressure, he would nearly always get out of it. If you afforded him space, he would take full advantage
The ability to execute all football actions, within a tight spaces, allowed him to attract more pressure into his zone. This would create space elsewhere on the field
From looking at some of the examples that have been listed, it’s clear to see that both players were extremely good at executing their desired football actions, even if the space/time was very short. My colleague mentioned, that whatever he tried (out of possession) didn’t work and they would always come up with a new solution.
So, the question is, where do these solutions come from?
The brain will receive many stimuli in the game and we have spoken about this previously. Once a certain stimuli gets above the decision making threshold, the respective player will then act on this and (attempt to) execute a football action. When you’re in a game environment though, especially at the top level, you don’t have the time to ‘think’ about your actions. Instead, your brain will act unconsciously and choose the desired decision for you. This is very much like eating with a knife and fork or riding a bicycle.
Having a football player that can execute football actions unconsciously, is what we would want in an ideal world. Although this doesn’t exist, you can achieve it with good training session design and coaching. If you allow a player to ‘think’ too long during competitive play, then this will contribute to slower decision making and poorer execution of football actions.
Challenge your players from the start and the unconscious execution of football actions, will have an opportunity to flourish!
In this 2 part blog post, I’m going to discuss what football actions are and how the speed of them specifically, can impact your player outcomes.
Today, I’ll be focusing on them within a youth team context. During this process, I’ll use 2 ends of the spectrum, with one being children within a youth setting (first season playing competitive football) and the other being, professional football. The interesting thing here will be, that I recently spoke to a colleague of mine, who has played in the Premier League. In the discussion we explored the experiences he had against Frank Lampard and Cesc Fabregas, within his career.
What is clear before we start, is that all football actions by definition are the same. Whether you are a player at under 7’s or a professional in the Premier League, when making a pass (in the correct context), you will be communicating, making a decision and executing a decision. The differing factor between the 2 ends of this spectrum, is the space that a player has and the time afforded to them. This characteristic underpins the football action and impacts how fast/slow a player executes a given decision.
If we look at youth football firstly, these players are at the start of their journey and have a very limited amount of references in their brain. There wouldn’t be much regard for game insight as all the player would be interested in, is the ball, where it is and maybe how many goals they score during the game. If you were to look at professional football, this would be a lot more complex and would require thinking, of an extreme level.
The speed of actions itself is key to a players development and could assist the speed of their own learning. Although this all sounds pretty logical, it is extremely hard to diagnose exactly where a player could be incompetent and then improve this. How do you do it? What tools could you use?
I’ll list a few of things that you should consider when you’re coaching, that could firstly help you expose certain incompetencies, to then help you improve them.
Understanding what a football action is – If you don’t know what a football action is, how can you coach someone? By not knowing what something is, you can’t expect to improve that something.
Opposed practices, instead of isolated ‘drills’ – If you opt to host an unopposed practice, you are taking away communication and decision making, with the practice now just focusing on execution. While this maybe necessary on the exception of the rule basis, as soon as the player is competent, they need to be executing football actions, not basic actions.
The size of the training area that you have chosen – If the playing area is extremely large, be prepared to see less turnovers of the ball and slower intensity (the speed of football actions will be reduced). If the playing area is extremely tight, then there will be less space and time, which means the attempted actions will look extremely quicker.
The interference, that the opposition are providing – Opposition are key for learning, as on a match day there will be other players, providing as much unpredictability as possible. If the opposition in your practices are merely walking around and not attempting to defend properly, then you may only get a small percentage of improvement. If they press with explosiveness and really attempt to restrict the attacking team from reaching their objective (to score at least one more goal than the opposition), this interference will force the players into quicker execution of decisions.
The speed of football actions, is the ‘intensity’ – The football action itself is the intensity of how the game will look. If a player takes 5 seconds to execute an action in space, it would look extremely slow. Where as, if a player was put under extreme pressure within a small space and they take 2 seconds to execute their decision, then this would look ‘quicker’.
Instruction causes conscious firepower – Instruction from outside of the players own conscious brain, will cause the player to act slower. We ideally want players to execute football actions unconsciously (which means they don’t need to think). If a player focuses on verbal information for example, their unconscious brain will be unemployed (not used), while the conscious brain will be focusing on the verbal input. This will distract attention, thus meaning a slower execution of decision.
Incompetencies in thinking, will slow down decision making – If a player is unable to think about the next action or they are unable to adapt within action, they will be exposed to a very uncomfortable moment where they won’t know what to do. This will reflect in the speed of how they act and as a consequence, could lead to the wrong execution of the proposed decision.
While the list and reasons isn’t exclusive to everyone, I’m sure there will be one suggestion that could assist you, in improving your training sessions,
The professional game on there other hand is a lot more complex and this will be explained in next weeks blog, ‘Speed of football actions – Part 2’.
The Park to Pro, ‘Hall of fame’, is officially open with our first member!
We’re delighted to confirm, that one of the previous players who attended the Park to Pro player pathway, has now signed with QPR after an initial trial period.
Along with our coaching team and that of his local football club, who have all contributed to Ola’s development, we are delighted to receive this news.
Adam, said; “Having known Ola for a couple of years now, it was obvious to see that he has his own qualities, so this news is long overdue in my opinion. He has been a fantastic participant throughout our time together and has always been receptive to feedback/learning. I’m delighted to know that he has joined a great club, who value the development of their players highly”.
Ola, will now be inducted into the Park to Pro hall of fame and will be an excellent example to all others, that are striving to make their dreams come true.
A massive congratulations, to Ola and his family!!!
Sometimes as a coach, you’ll hit a ‘brick wall’ and feel that you are well and truly stuck. Within these moments, you may question what you’ve been doing or what new direction you may attempt to take. When it comes to the topic of your training session, this may well be the case. Your football library might not be very vast, which means you could struggle to design something that will engage and most importantly, improve.
Within these moments it is very much a case of, “you don’t know, what you don’t know”, so how could you get that light bulb moment, that could create new ideas? Here, I list a few things you could try;
Read, read, read – If you have the time, reading is an extremely powerful tool that you can use, to improve your football library. While there is a lot of subjective application guides, you can take what you see and theorise the situation. Could it work in your circumstances or environment? If not, why? If you don’t have time to read, try and create it….
YouTube – Again, this is another situation similar to the above, so if used correctly, it could help you. There are hundreds of thousands of different videos, clips and interviews that could possibly inspire you to try something out. Beware that this ‘quick fix’, shouldn’t be abused though, as there will be a lot of subjective application available.
Watch a game – When watching professional matches, you are given immediate access to football actions, that are executed at a high speed, with less space/time. By seeing what the professionals do, it should enable you to understand the situations that your players could also find themselves in. While an under 7’s environment is completely different to that of Barcelona, a pass is still pass….
Mind map – One of the most useful tools for retaining information, is that of a mind map. You can label the middle with the topic you wish to explore, along with a visual. This will help your brain promote certain ideas, by visualising and detailing what you see. Around the map, ask yourself questions such as – WHERE does it happen on the pitch? WHO is involved? WHAT are the key playing positions? WHEN does it happen? By using these questions, you could write down key words that are associated with the theme you’re exploring.
Football actions – You are coaching a sport called football, so all of the actions that are executed should be in that context. Next, you can list what actions the players in that scenario are doing or should be doing. This can then lead you into a situation, where you could visualise what you want and how (possibly) the players could do it.
Network and ask questions – There is always an opportunity to learn, whether that be reading, watching or listening. Networking with other like minded coaches, could enable you to discuss what they have done previously, or how they execute their own coaching actions, within their environment. By building a larger network, you will have more opportunities to discuss and possibly more opportunities to learn.
Log and file your training sessions – While there are many online tools, you could also use old fashioned methods, such as files and plastic wallets to store your sessions. By doing this, you could organise them into certain parts of the game and then go over them at a later date. By reflecting and evaluating, you could create new pops which we discussed in last weeks blog post.
Coming up with new ideas, is extremely hard and challenging at the best of times. But, by zooming out and using some of the more simpler ideas, you won’t be far off in creating a scenario that players could thrive under. In a worst case scenario, you can always stick to what you know (the game) and coach within it. Players will understand the game, it will be quick and easy to get started, and you’ll be sure that it’ll have unpredictability from the first whistle.
Don’t over complicate your ideas or worry too much… sometimes simple is best!
Throughout my journey, I’ve had many different experiences to date, as you may expect. Some of these experiences have been extremely memorable for good reasons and others memorable, for not so good reasons. Learning the coaching process is a very slow one and takes many hours to refine, to then enable you to assist the players & staff you work with.
While ‘experience’ in itself is always going to take place, it’s what we do with it, that can improve us for the future. Experience is also known as sensory data and when you do something, there will be a certain response. This response will then have an emotional attachment that can trigger all different types of hormones and feelings. While we always crave rewards (dopamine), those that coach or play football, will know that things don’t always go to plan.
One thing I’ve learnt more on in the last few years, is what reflecting can do and how it can effect performance.
To enable yourself to reflect, you have to be able to theorise what happened. By doing this you can firstly write down the stimulus. What did you see/hear/feel? What happened?
Then you can record any pop ups that you have in your brain, in response to the original stimulus. What responses is your brain giving to this situation and as a consequence, what are you visualising?
Finally, you can then record how you may action these new ‘pop-ups’, in the future.
Here is an example;
Topic – Questioning
What (Stimulus); We had to ask the delegates twice for their questions and emphasised on the deadline of when they were due in. This then prompted a flurry of messages with some very in-depth (detailed) responses and questions to suit. The task was then to separate the questions into the ‘what’ and filter out the ‘how’, as some of the questions fell into this bracket.
Reflection (Response); We could’ve highlighted the need for questions and set a deadline earlier on – possibly the first contact we had.
To improve (Action); The date and time is already set for the next meeting and the deadline for questions. Now delegates have seen this, I feel that this months process will be better, as they know what is expected of them.
This is one of my reflections, from my mentorship programme currently.
The power of reflecting is an extremely useful and one that has helped me massively over the last few years. If it is implemented regularly and throughly, you could be able to push your thinking to new levels. I use writing as my tool to reflect and to take all the ‘gold’ from the mine, in order to improve myself. The gold is the new pop-up that I have had and what my thoughts are, on the given situation. The mine is my brain….I don’t want to leave any new thoughts to go to waste, that could improve me, so everything is written down.
As you can see from the above example, the process can be a long one, but the benefits can be huge. Here I’ll outline some tips, that I’ve found useful while learning how to reflect;
Do it when your brain is fresh – early mornings could be best
Don’t have any distractions – the pop ups you want are exclusive to the experience only. Having interactions with a mobile phone for example, will give you other stimuli, that isn’t related to the coaching you’re doing for example
Write down exactly what you see, what the response is, and how you could use it in your coaching in the future
Don’t leave anything to waste – the one ‘pop-up’ you leave and don’t record, could be the one that improves what you or how you do it
After you’ve used the reflection, reflect again and create a new reflection – this process then allows it to be constantly ongoing
Why not starting reflecting on your actions today and see what progress you can make?
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